Development of the FitBack online platform: Enhancing global child fitness assessment, health-related interpretation, and surveillance

IF 3.4 3区医学 Q1 HEALTH POLICY & SERVICES

Health Policy and Technology Pub Date : 2025-02-01 DOI:10.1016/j.hlpt.2024.100967

Maroje Sorić , Shawnda A. Morrison , Francisco B. Ortega , Attilio Carraro , Tamás Csányi , Bojan Leskošek , Jarek Mäestu , Snežana Radisavljević-Janić , Luís B. Sardinha , Claude Scheuer , Gregor Starc , Tuija H. Tammelin , Gregor Jurak

{"title":"Development of the FitBack online platform: Enhancing global child fitness assessment, health-related interpretation, and surveillance","authors":"Maroje Sorić , Shawnda A. Morrison , Francisco B. Ortega , Attilio Carraro , Tamás Csányi , Bojan Leskošek , Jarek Mäestu , Snežana Radisavljević-Janić , Luís B. Sardinha , Claude Scheuer , Gregor Starc , Tuija H. Tammelin , Gregor Jurak","doi":"10.1016/j.hlpt.2024.100967","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><h3>Objectives</h3><div>Physical fitness is an important indicator of health in children<strong>.</strong> Accurately monitoring child and adolescent physical fitness is critical when designing effective public health interventions and strategies. This article communicates the creation process of the FitBack platform, a multi-lingual, free-for-use online health, education and information portal tool. The study's objectives are to provide a detailed breakdown of the evidence-based health-related criteria that support its unique feedback reporting system.</div></div><div><h3>Methods</h3><div>Four methodological phases were used to create the FitBack platform. First, a review of existing European fitness databases was conducted to identify common fitness tests and methodologies within a European framework. Second, investigators collated data to create European-level fitness norms, health-related criteria, and health-oriented educational resources dedicated to improving child fitness levels. Third, guidance on how to create one's own fitness monitoring and surveillance system was created based on good practice examples. The FitBack platform was then piloted and launched based on data received from stakeholders who responded to ≥2 rounds of consultation dialogues.</div></div><div><h3>Results</h3><div>The final version of the online platform is detailed herein, with special focus on describing its novel health-related, child-specific fitness criteria used to provide its diverse end-users individualised health feedback.</div></div><div><h3>Conclusions</h3><div>The FitBack online platform is a first-step tool that anyone can use towards creating their own standardised, person-centred, multi-national fitness surveillance system for children, bridging policy gaps that exist between current European political recommendations and individual member states, encouraging harmonious cooperation between sectors. By providing the detailed age- and sex-specific health-related fitness cut-points underpinning FitBack's health feedback, we expect this versatile digital health tool to be useful not only to researchers, but also practitioners and policy makers, as they work towards building better child fitness monitoring system infrastructures worldwide.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48672,"journal":{"name":"Health Policy and Technology","volume":"14 1","pages":"Article 100967"},"PeriodicalIF":3.4000,"publicationDate":"2025-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Health Policy and Technology","FirstCategoryId":"3","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2211883724001308","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"HEALTH POLICY & SERVICES","Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Abstract

Objectives

Physical fitness is an important indicator of health in children. Accurately monitoring child and adolescent physical fitness is critical when designing effective public health interventions and strategies. This article communicates the creation process of the FitBack platform, a multi-lingual, free-for-use online health, education and information portal tool. The study's objectives are to provide a detailed breakdown of the evidence-based health-related criteria that support its unique feedback reporting system.

Methods

Four methodological phases were used to create the FitBack platform. First, a review of existing European fitness databases was conducted to identify common fitness tests and methodologies within a European framework. Second, investigators collated data to create European-level fitness norms, health-related criteria, and health-oriented educational resources dedicated to improving child fitness levels. Third, guidance on how to create one's own fitness monitoring and surveillance system was created based on good practice examples. The FitBack platform was then piloted and launched based on data received from stakeholders who responded to ≥2 rounds of consultation dialogues.

Results

The final version of the online platform is detailed herein, with special focus on describing its novel health-related, child-specific fitness criteria used to provide its diverse end-users individualised health feedback.

Conclusions

The FitBack online platform is a first-step tool that anyone can use towards creating their own standardised, person-centred, multi-national fitness surveillance system for children, bridging policy gaps that exist between current European political recommendations and individual member states, encouraging harmonious cooperation between sectors. By providing the detailed age- and sex-specific health-related fitness cut-points underpinning FitBack's health feedback, we expect this versatile digital health tool to be useful not only to researchers, but also practitioners and policy makers, as they work towards building better child fitness monitoring system infrastructures worldwide.

查看原文本刊更多论文

求助全文

约1分钟内获得全文求助全文

来源期刊

Health Policy and Technology Medicine-Health Policy

CiteScore

9.20

自引率

3.30%

发文量

审稿时长

88 days

期刊介绍： Health Policy and Technology (HPT), is the official journal of the Fellowship of Postgraduate Medicine (FPM), a cross-disciplinary journal, which focuses on past, present and future health policy and the role of technology in clinical and non-clinical national and international health environments. HPT provides a further excellent way for the FPM to continue to make important national and international contributions to development of policy and practice within medicine and related disciplines. The aim of HPT is to publish relevant, timely and accessible articles and commentaries to support policy-makers, health professionals, health technology providers, patient groups and academia interested in health policy and technology. Topics covered by HPT will include: - Health technology, including drug discovery, diagnostics, medicines, devices, therapeutic delivery and eHealth systems - Cross-national comparisons on health policy using evidence-based approaches - National studies on health policy to determine the outcomes of technology-driven initiatives - Cross-border eHealth including health tourism - The digital divide in mobility, access and affordability of healthcare - Health technology assessment (HTA) methods and tools for evaluating the effectiveness of clinical and non-clinical health technologies - Health and eHealth indicators and benchmarks (measure/metrics) for understanding the adoption and diffusion of health technologies - Health and eHealth models and frameworks to support policy-makers and other stakeholders in decision-making - Stakeholder engagement with health technologies (clinical and patient/citizen buy-in) - Regulation and health economics